Something to Avenge
by Lin-ZB
Summary: This is a dumping ground for my Avengers shipping feels, based specifically off of the 2012 movie. Mostly little scenes or trains of thought, nothing long winded. Each ship will be listed at the top of each chapter.
1. Stupid, Tony

**Ship: Tony Stark x Pepper Potts**

* * *

He was going to die. And it was a damned heroic, unselfish death, too. Flying a nuke through a closing portal to a hostile alien army in a suit with barely enough power to get you there? Really Tony, this is how you're going to go?

"Shall I try Miss Potts?"

His instinct was no. He couldn't talk to her when he was about to do this.

She was going to find out on the news, if he didn't.

No, he couldn't do that. If Tony Stark was going to die, he was damn well going to do it on his own terms.

"Sure, why not?"

The phone began to ring. The nuke and the suit kept flying. The portal kept closing. And then the phone stopped ringing.

The suit lost power.

She was going to find out on the news anyway. Only now she was going to check her phone and see the one missed call. She was going to put it together - he knew she was - his damnably brilliant Pepper. But then he had no idea what she was going to do.

Stupid, Tony. Really stupid.


	2. What If?

**Ship: **Clint Barton x Natasha Romanova

**Setting: **Some time after the Avengers movie; these two are living together and Natasha is pregnant with their daughter (because they have to name their kid Natalie Barton because COME ON. It's cute.)

* * *

She was as scared as he'd ever seen her. Probably no one else could tell, but the way she was sitting on their bed when he came home – well, his trained eye could see the tension in her shoulders and the blankness in her gaze.

"I can't do this," she said tonelessly.

"Tasha, don't worry! The doctor said your pregnancy is perfectly normal-"

"I'm not worried about being pregnant." She rubbed one hand idly along the swell of her stomach. He waited for her to continue, knowing better than to ask her to speak when she didn't want to.

"I'm… I'm worried about _her_, Clint!" She finally looked at him, and he was stunned to see that there were tears in her eyes. "What if she has to live like- like us? What if she has to go through that?"

"Natasha, sweetheart," he murmured, sliding an arm behind her shoulder, "she won't have to. We'll protect her from that."

"But what if we can't? What if someone takes her away from us and does things to her, just because we're her parents?" Her voice cracked and she fell in to a whisper. "Because _I'm_ her mother?"

"No. Natasha, you're talking all in what-if's. I promise you, she will be safe."

"How can you promise that?" she cried hoarsely. "Can you tell me that you have no enemy who would take the chance to get back at you through your kid? Because I know I have plenty."

He sighed. She relented and leaned against him, burying her face in his neck.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, breath hot and wet against his skin. "But I don't know if I can do this."

He took her hand in his, gently massaging her balled fists into normality. "You don't have to do it alone, you know."

She sank against his side.

"I know."

* * *

**Author's Note: **I tried to explore Natasha's softer side, because no one can be alert and guarded all the time, and I believe that she does want to settle down eventually. Please no one come yelling at me about how I'm making her a "weak female;" being pregnant and wanting to start a family does not automatically make a woman weak, nor do I think it's inherently out-of-character for any one of these superheroes to want to settle down eventually. It's a tough life, physically and emotionally, for these people, and even heroes have to retire.


	3. Somewhere in Portland

**Ship: **Coulson x Cellist

* * *

She had never been one for mythology, except as it pertained to her music. You know, "Orpheus and the Underworld" and the like. But when S.H.I.E.L.D. issued their official report of the alien attack, and after Director Fury and Agent Hill had a personal debriefing with her over the loss of their mutual friend, she got her hands on every book of Norse mythology she could find. She read them all, combed every page for a mention of Loki, grinned viciously when she read about his ultimate fate in Ragnarok, and hoped guiltlessly that this was what he was facing as punishment for attacking Earth, for attacking S.H.I.E.L.D., for attacking _him._


	4. Old Friends and Fondue

**Ship: **Steve Rogers x Peggy Carter (also TonySteve if you squint)

* * *

The picture was of Tony, around age five, leaning over precociously to kiss an older woman on the cheek. Her face was mostly obscured by a mass of brown curls as she turned away from the boy, but she appeared to be laughing.

"Hey Tony, who's that?" Steve asked.

"Hmm? Oh, that's my Aunt Peggy," he replied after a moment of casual observation. "Not an aunt really, she was an old friend of my dad's. Wonderful woman, she uh, she used to work with him back in World War…"

Steve had gone very still. Tony closed his eyes and berated himself soundly for shooting off his mouth before thinking. When he looked again, Steve's eyes were trained on the picture with such complete heartbreak he looked almost calm, and one finger rested gently on the edge of Peggy's smile.

"Hey man," Tony sighed as he sat heavily on the couch. "Sorry."

"No," Steve muttered. "It's alright."

He spent another moment staring at her, eyes flicking over every visible contour of her different but familiar face. Then he looked up at Tony with a small smile.

"So uh, were she and your dad – I mean, did they ever-"

"-have fondue?" Tony finished with a wicked grin.

Steve's dumbfounded look was excessively satisfying. Tony laughed and leaned back.

"No, they were just friends."

"Oh, well, uh. That's good, I guess." Steve's gaze wandered to the middle distance, and Tony could almost see the 1940's bunker he was remembering.

"You wanna know how I know about the fondue faux pas?" Tony asked after a moment.

"Not particularly." Steve's smile said otherwise.

"Well, I was talking about euphemisms one day - no real reason - and I asked Aunt Peggy if she knew what one was."

"Oh, no."

"Oh yes. Who would have thought that the first superhero knew so little about French cuisine?"

Steve had put his head in his hands by this point and was trying to hide his laughter.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Writing Tony's dialogue is so difficult for me! xD Please Let me know how I did/how I can improve on that.


End file.
